Is there any reason why a railroad company Can’t leave a handful of locomotives in their pre-merger paint schemes . I know that they wan’t to be a more uniform looking outfit. But couldn’t they keep let’s say 10% of their takeover fleet in their original paint. & mabe call them the “Fallen Flag Heritage Fleet”. How about it for the fans? “Thank You” …“Let’er Roll”…
Good Idea. [:)]
At least we railfans think so. [:D]
You’d have thought the bean counters would be all for it too.
Afterall, it costs a lot to paint a loco.
I would love to see a CSX 70mac in the yards at Grafton in B&O blue.
That would be cool. The problem is thay really don’t care what we think. They just want to make sure everbody knows who they are. Name branding is cheap marketing.
It would be nice to see an Amtrak train painted in its colors for the area it runs in.
NEC = Pennsy
NY to Chicago = NYC
etc.
It would be really cool if they would. I miss the Santa Fe warbonnet paint scheme and the CN&W paint schemes.
Willy
That would be a great idea. It would be nice to see a WC stay in its original paint. There are still plenty of WC’s left in thier own paint and in decent shape. It doesn’t seem like the CN is making a big attempt to repaint any former WC’s, only the SW1500’s and getting rid of the rest. Overall, that would be a great idea.
I’d love it!!! Actually, I do think that there are some small short lines that use some of the paint schemes from fallen flags for their locomotives.
I saw a picture in Trains recently of a Genesis locomotive working on Metro North painted in the “McGinnis” style red black and white of the New Haven railroad. I guess I am a purist… but even a McGinnis paint job can’t help a Genesis look better. That’s my story and Ahm a stickin to it!
Your absolutly right. Many short switching railroads use fallen flags paint schemes for their loco’s. The CN is not making a big effort to repaint their WC oco’s and the CP is not making a big effort to repaint their Soo Line loco’s. Seem’s like the Canadian roads like to preserve American rolling history. Now why can’t Up or BNSF learn that[:(!] I do agree that it would be cool if the UP saved a few loco’s. Although recently on the BNSF Powder River coal trains going through Crosby,MN I have seen pure BN creme green unit and pure SF warbonnet unit[yeah]
Unfortubeatley thats not for us to decide
And for that…You are correct!
Rail fans are driven by the romance of the railroads.
Railroads are driven the economics of their operations.
The two are mutually exclusive.
if that is something you want…then i suggest that you A… become the CEO of the company… B…become a billionir and buy an example of evey unit and paint scheme that you wi***o save…
csx engineer
oh yea…i forgot to add…you might also want to stack the board of directors with people that feel like you do should you become the CEO…or they might just vote to fire you…
csx engineer
Wasnt there some GE P42 or whatever painted in NH colors a while back?
Adrianspeeder
Heh. Now you got me thinking… **Eyes the spray can of Blue paint and some decals…
I suspect that costs to paint motive power is probably charged off as Company expenses come tax day. So the more money they can spend on the loco’s paint the more they can show off and perhaps get a break on taxes.
I never really thought of this before but I do know a rusty green Penn Central engine (Sorry PC fans just a random pick of fallen flag road name) does not conduct to a good impression unless said loco is preserved as a muesum or living history.
Some paint schemes should really have been left on the drawing board. It seems as if the powers that be were on a dream in the night when they conjured some of these very complicated schemes designed to make engine painters weep with frusteration and rage.
BaltADC and csxengineer tagged it.
I think the best looking locomotive was the F unit, in Santa Fe War Bonnet paint…
but Santa Fe is gone.
BNSF, on the other hand, thinks simpler is better, and cheaper.
NS has the best paint in the world, from a dollar point of view.
Two basic colors…cheap, easy to apply, and easy to touch up…not because they love the looks, but because these locomotives are tools…
In reality, most railroaders could care less what paint is on the tool, as long as the tool works well, primer would be fine.
The paint is just to keep them from rusting…
But I still love the old Santa Fe’s colors…
Ed
And for that matter, who but us railfans is going to even understand what’s been done? Your average Joe waiting (again!) for a train doesn’t care what the locomotives look like. He just wants them out of his way.
It will take some really open minded management (like those who would also support steam) to make something like that happen. Other than just not being in a hurry to repaint units that are from the merged road…
Whoops!..I forgot that alot of the romance is gone from railroading!..What was I thinking? Ha Ha Ha.
You’d have to admit though that there is nothing like seeing a Santa Fe Warbonnet in its original colors with the original company name on it!
Ever see a warbonnet scheme with the BNSF logo on it?..Yuck!
My original post was just a thought, I do see a few good points that I hadn’t thought about!
PS; Besides, If any of the managements out there are anything like ours at my job…I’d rather have them all painted over! It will save alot of headaches in the long run!
“Happy Rails”
Ken